The Decade in Music, Part 3: Best Albums 1. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002, Nonesuch) Disregard the David vs. Goliath record-biz mythology, disregard the band’s internal conflicts, disregard the phenomenal making-of documentary and what you still have is an absolute masterpiece – a perfect record for the decade, for any decade. This is timeless […]

The Decade in Music, Part 2: Favorite Tucson Albums I want to stress that this list is one of favorites rather than anything I’m claiming to be the best. I’m good friends with too many on this list to claim any sort of broad objectivity, so it’s hardly definitive. And while it’d be easy to […]

The Decade in Music, Part 1: Honorable Mentions I have no grand pronouncements for the music of the 2000s. Defining it in terms of its technology downplays the music. Defining it by any singular trend or genre ignores the incredible expansion enabled by the technology. Marketers tried shoveling crap down everybody’s throats while the fans […]

Since the 2000s lined up almost precisely with my 20s, this whole decade-in-review crap is an interesting way to think very personally in terms of what cultural elements have guided and influenced me along the way. There’s no denying that the movies and TV shows I’ve watched have shaped not only how I’ve related to […]